When Kerri Sparling was 7 years old, she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Her family didn’t know anyone with the disease, so they sent her to diabetes camp — “where every single camper had Type 1 diabetes,” she says.

“That was my first sense of not only other people who had diabetes, but a true community,” says Sparling.

Things are very different today. About 26 million Americans have diabetes — mostly Type 2 — and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that as many as one-third of adults could have diabetes by 2050.

People living with diabetes have created a vibrant online community. Big drug companies are certainly taking notice — and some advocacy groups feel that the Food and Drug Administration should as well.